Biggest Offseason Acquisition: Not applicable.

Potential Fatal Flaw: The expectations from a fluke 2012 filling everyone’s heads. And their pitching staff.

Ceiling: 2012 wasn’t a fluke and they earn an American League Wild Card berth.

Floor: They won’t be the worst team in baseball. But they will be the worst team in the AL East.

Overall: Maybe I’m being unfair to the 2012 Orioles. They did win a lot of games and did come close to making the ALCS.

Or maybe I’m being as fair as I should be. Maybe they won an unsustainable number of close games and their bullpen pitched way above realistic expectations and the stars aligned and all of that.

I’m leaning toward the second paragraph.

The reason why the Orioles do not have an applicable answer for “biggest offseason acquisition” is because they didn’t actually acquire anything of any consequence in the offseason. Which is a huge problem if you ask me.

Look, you don’t often hear people dole out the advice, “Complacency gets you places!” right? I’ve never been told that I’ll accomplish my career goals by just merely existing. That works for baseball too.

The 2012 Baltimore Orioles were just not a great baseball team on paper. They performed well-above expectations. They would say, “well not ours. We expected to be a playoff team.” That’s fine. That’s their job. But it’s also a General Manager’s job to find the flaws in his team and try to fix them. Like, say, starting pitching.

Look, the reinvented Jason Hammel is a fine pitcher. But he is not a staff ace. At least not for a team that thinks of itself, as the Orioles must, as a “contender.” Baltimore’s rotation confounds me in a lot of ways because it is made up primarily of the Orioles’ own failed prospects. Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta, Zach Britton, and Chris Tillman were all once going to be the saviors of the franchise. All of them suffered through injuries and all of them, save for Tillman, are very low-upside pieces at this juncture.

It’s not all gloom for the Orioles though. The offense is good. In the National League, it would be one of the better offenses. In the American League, it’s just good. Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters, and phenom third baseman (but should be shortstop) Manny Machado form a really nice, relatively young, core. The other pieces around them are mostly complementary (JJ Hardy, Nolan Reimold…should he ever spend an entire year in a Major League lineup) but they’re good enough to get the job done and at least keep the Orioles relevant. I just wonder if the Orioles’ expectations at this point have moved past just “being relevant.”

Predicted Finish: 77-85